


If freedom means being alone, I fear liberation.

by kristsune



Series: Cuyane verse [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen, NJ and Anomaly both have faulty chips if for different reasons, Order 66, Post Order 66, This is not a happy au, canonverse, maybe not all angst, mentions of canon character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 11:50:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12035295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristsune/pseuds/kristsune
Summary: What happens to NJ after Order 66





	If freedom means being alone, I fear liberation.

**Author's Note:**

> This just ... Kind of happened. [Jesse](http://thebisexualmandalorian.tumblr.com/) and I have had a lot of conversations about this. I love this au, and hope there will be more.  
> Anomaly belongs to Jesse, and the title is from Vienna Teng - "Between"

NJ was running to catch up with everyone. He managed to forget his bucket on his bunk. Luckily they were just on Coruscant, and he would be able to reach the rest of the battalion easily. 

He was most of the way to the hangar when everything  _ shifted _ . NJ wasn’t able to keep his balance and went down hard. This was  _ way _ worse than any dizzy spell that he ever had. He was on his hands and knees, unable to get up. He had to try and get to the others, get to  _ someone _ . But there was no one there. Where was everyone?

Everything clenched, and he threw up. He must have blacked out briefly, because he woke up slumped against the wall. 

If he could just get to his ship, any ship, he could contact someone, get help. This was too much for him to handle alone. 

He crawled for what seemed like hours, having to stop and throw up three more times, but there was only bile left. He sobbed in relief when he got to the hangar and crawled into the closest ship he could find. It wasn’t his fighter, but a small cargo ship, long range comm systems, small hold, with bunk with attached ‘fresher and eating area. 

He sat in the ‘fresher for what seemed like forever, until he was able to manage to stand long enough to splash some water on his face, and rinse out his mouth. By the time he was able to get to the cockpit, the dizziness had abated enough that he could walk as long as he kept a hand along the wall. 

He turned on the comms to see what was happening only to be confronted with utter chaos. 

There was a massive attack on at the Jedi Temple. NJ toggled to the visuals, and managed to get a couple different views up. It was a  _ massacre _ . Not only that, it was clones doing the killing, his  _ brothers _ . Shooting down innocent children like they were the droids they had been fighting all along. And General Skywalker was at the head of it all. 

NJ couldn’t believe his eyes. Only then he realized he was openingly crying. He had no idea what was going on, but he had a feeling his massive dizzy spell was connected. 

He finally managed to tear his eyes away from the slaughter. He couldn’t watch anymore. He had to see what was happening elsewhere. Was this an isolated? Was it just the 501st? Did the General have something to do with it? 

He opened up all the channels, to see what he could find. He saw and heard vode, but they didn’t sound right. There was something very wrong. They didn’t sound like  _ themselves _ . There was no personality left. They all sounded the same. They may be clones, but they all had their own voice, they always had. And now they were  _ gone _ . He started picking up on what they were actually saying. He would have thrown up if he hadn’t completely emptied everything already.

“Order 66 fulfilled. Rogue Jedi is confirmed dead.”

“-Jedi are resisting more than expected, need reinforcements-”

“-has been shot down. Will need to go through the wreckage to confirm-”

“Is anyone out there? Does anyone know what the hells is going on? Someone  _ Please answer me. _ ”

NJ froze. He knew that last voice.  _ Anomaly _ . Except he sounded like he never heard him before. He sounded confused, frightened, panicked. If he was seeing anything like NJ was, he could completely understand the feeling. 

He quickly worked on zeroing in on Anomaly’s signal. Where it was coming from, how long ago it went out. He was on Felucia, with the rest of the 327th. His message hadn’t gone out that long ago, but it’s been on repeat and untouched since he initially sent it.

NJ concentrated on the other channels for the 327th he caught a snippet of Commander Bly mentioning putting the defect into the brig. If NJ knew anything about Anomaly, that  _ had _ to be him. He had to go. He had to get him out of there. Maybe they could lay low together until they figured out what was happening. 

NJ skirted the thought of them already putting Anomaly down for insubordination. He couldn’t do this alone. There was no way. Just the thought of being alone made him break out in a cold sweat. 

He got up to start prep the ship to get the kriff out of there, when he realized the dizziness was down to a dull buzz. Just the feeling of the floor was unstable under him. That, he could at least deal with. Nothing like earlier. He would have to look into what happened to him. But that was for later. 

First he had to get Anomaly.

\---------

NJ was sweating profusely under his armor. He was walking through the 327th’s holding cells wearing a shiny’s armor he had stolen. He shook his head again. The low level dizziness after the initial episode hadn’t gone away. It had never lasted this long before. The floor was still subtly shifting under every step. Not much, but just enough to feel it. It was tolerable, he could deal with it. Anomaly’s safety came first.

He was trying to get to Anomaly’s cell, which should be just ahead. Luckily everything was still chaos after the incident, so NJ hadn’t had any problems getting through the ship. 

Here, 4863. NJ put in the proper code to unlock the door, and was confronted with an empty room. 

Scratch that, Anomaly was leaning against the wall directly next to the door. NJ pulled off his bucket and knelt down. “An’ika, come on, we gotta go.” When Anomaly didn’t answer, NJ took a closer look. 

Anomaly was staring into the middle distance, eyes unfocused. His cheeks were stained with dried tears. His breathing was shallow but even. He was also completely unresponsive to anything NJ said. 

“Hey-hey, can you hear me?” Nothing. 

“Okay. It’s okay.” NJ wasn’t sure if Anomaly actually couldn’t hear him, or if he was just so far gone at the moment he just didn’t have the capability to answer.

“Can you get up? Are you hurt?” NJ knew he wasn’t going to answer but he felt better about talking to him as he went rather than just trying to maneuver him without any warning at all. 

NJ ran his hand down Anomaly’s arm before grasping his wrist and bringing it up and over his shoulder to lift him up.

NJ wasn’t sure how they managed it, but they got back to his -  _ their _ \- ship undetected. NJ got Anomaly settled on the bunk, he would worry about getting him cleaned up and checked out once they were in neutral space. 

Just as NJ was going to head back to the cockpit to get them out of there, Anomaly grasped his wrist in a too tight grip, “She’s dead. They  _ killed _ her. They killed her and called her  _ traitor _ .”

NJ wrapped his arms around him, “I know, An’ika. I know. I’m sorry. We’ll figure this out, I promise, but I need to get us out of here first.” He pulled back to see silent tears had started to streak down Anomaly’s face, and his eyes were back to being unfocused. 

He sighed sadly laying Anomaly down, brushing his hair out of his face. “I’ll be back shortly. An’ika. Just let me get us out of here.”

Which was exactly what NJ did, getting them to an empty, mostly neutral area in space. 

After some light manhandling, NJ cleaned and changed Anomaly, getting him back into the bunk. He finally started to respond to NJ’s touch, if only a little bit. When NJ curled around Anomaly, he turned into NJ’s touch, fisting the front of his shirt as NJ held him close. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Hopefully he would continue to get better, and they would be able to find some answers soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a  
> cuyane - survivors


End file.
